The new season opened with a masterful pairing of early Britten and Shostakovich: in fact, with what is arguably the most thrilling and audacious symphony Shostakovich ever wrote, the — bafflingly, frustratingly rarely programmed — Symphony No. 4.

Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliners will bring the same program to the Lucerne Festival on Tuesday.

Here’s more info and a link to the performance in BP’s Digital Concert Hall.

The Berlin Philharmonic’s choice of the Russian conductor Kirill Petrenko, a native of Omsk, as the new chief conductor to replace Sir Simon Rattle is the biggest piece of orchestral news this week.

Here’s an interview in English from Maestro Petrenko’s visit with the orchestra in 2009:

And here’s one from a visit to Israel (start at 4:50):

On a side note, FAZ reporter Eleonore Büning denounces some media commentators for marring the news with ugly anti-Semitic innuendo. But William Osborne, in the comments section here, suggests this may be a case of irony gone wrong rather than nefarious intentions.

Or does it come down to a repugnant example of clickbait? I’ve now learned a new term for that in German: Quotenjägergerüchteküche, which Osborne translates as “unappetizing quota-hunting-insinuation-kitchen.”

Black Panther broke records and crushed expectations at the box office it. Not just here in the States, but in foreign markets too. That performance, as well as the one by Get Out, can finally put to rest the notion that movies with black actors don't do well internationally.